Five issues that will dominate Karnataka Assembly elections

Karnataka heads to polls on May 12. Counting of votes and announcement of results will take place on May 15. In the run-up to the elections, here are five issues that dominate politics in the state.

Both parties are taking no chances with the state, considered by the BJP as the gateway to the South. Karnataka is under Congress rule and stands in the way of BJP’s agenda of Congress-free India.

Here are five issues that will dominate the political landscape in the state.


Law and order: The issue is one where the Siddaramaiah government finds itself on the backfoot. Rationalist and leading scholar MM Kalburgi was shot dead at his home in 2015. His wife has written to the Supreme Court stating that she is not satisfied with the probe being conducted by the state police and wants a Special Investigation Team to investigate her husband's death. Journalist Gauri Lankesh, a critic of right-wing ideology, was killed outside her home in Bengaluru in 2017 but the case has not been solved yet despite the arrest of a suspect Naveen Kumar. Investigators have said that there is a similarity in the killings of Gauri Lankesh and of Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar, rationalists and vocal critics of the Hindutva agenda. Forensic reports confirm similar weapons were used and shootings were carried out by assassins on motorcycles but the cases remain unsolved. Several lynchings of BJP and RSS workers have been reported in the state recently. Incidents of sexual harassment and molestation during New Year celebrations in Bengaluru were reported for last two consecutive years. “In Karnataka, there is ease of doing murder,” Modi said in Bengaluru, in an apparent reference to the spate of murders that have taken place in recent months in coastal Karnataka and Bengaluru.

Farmers' suicides: As many as 3,515 farmers have committed suicide between April 2013 and November 2017 in Karnataka. From April 2015 to April 2017, as many as 2,514 suicide cases were reported. The highest number of suicides (1,483) were reported during 2015-16. A majority of these suicides have been because of drought and farm failure as per the statistics provided by the State Agriculture Department. The government has taken steps that include asking banks not to force farmers to repay their dues and turn their short and medium-term crop loans into long-term loans with the waiver of interest. It has also registered cases against moneylenders who lend loans at exorbitant interest rates. However, the government has been accused of failing to solve the agrarian crisis.

Kannada pride: The issue of the primacy of Kannada or Kannada Swabhimana has developed into a strong movement and is also expected to take centrestage in the elections. The Railways had to incorporate Kannada in tickets of trains plying within the state, the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru had to introduce Kannada in flight information display boards, Lufthansa, British Airways and Dragon Air started announcements in Kannada in Bengaluru-bound flights. This constituency of youngsters, led by mostly software professionals, under the banner of Banavasi Balaga and Kannada Grahakara Koota cannot be ignored. The Siddaramaiah government has caught on to the popular sentiment and is trying to introduce Kannada to be incorporated in passports used in Karnataka. Even more surprising was his decision to moot a separate Kannada flag, justifying it as the comeback of federalism. The flag has already been approved by the cabinet and will now be sent to the Union home ministry for its approval.The BJP, on the other hand, is an advocate of "one nation" and believes it will lead to divisive tendencies. The JD(U) has stayed away from this discussion.

Corruption: Both the Congress and the BJP have dubbed each other as "the most corrupt". PM Modi has called the Siddaramaiah government the "10% government" where no work or project could take off without paying a commission to the Congress. Modi accused the Congress of being involved in multiple scams including buildings, transfers and sand. The Congress has accused former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa-led BJP government of presiding over the mining scam when it was in power in the state. Siddaramaiah has also been accused of nepotism. His son Yathindra Siddaramaiah's company Matrix Imaging Solutions was allegedly awarded a tender to set up a pathology laboratory inside the premises of the government-owned super-speciality Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute. Siddaramaiah's rivals have stated that the deal violated the code of conduct for ministers.

Politics of religion and caste: The BJP and the JDS have traditionally relied on religion and caste dynamics. However, in a major surprise political move ahead of the assembly elections, the state cabinet in March decided to recommend to the Centre according separate religion status to the numerically strong Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community. The move was seen as an attempt by the Siddaramaiah government to cut into the vote bank of BJP, as Lingayats/ Veerashaivas are considered the party's traditional supporters. Lingayats, a middle caste, comprise around 15 per cent of Karnataka's population, and dominate politics in the state. A section of the community has been seeking the status of a separate religion as distinct from the Hindu religion.

The BJP has reached out to the Vokkaligas, who are believed to be the second largest caste group in the state after the Lingayats and who form the support base of the Janata Dal (Secular), a regional party run by Vokkaliga strongmen like former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy. The Congress party, with leaders like DK Shivakumar, has also got the support of the Vokkaligas.

The Dalits are the third most important caste group which is why Siddaramaiah has tried to woo them through the AHINDA (acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) movement.